Originally published in the Monroe Monitor & Valley News, Vol. 120, No. 39

September 28, 2010
by Polly Keary

University Beyond Bars celebrates $600,000 grant

Most medium security inmates try to earn their wayto minimum security, for thefreedoms that go with it.

But such is the freedom that goes with education, some inmates have tried to stay out of minimum security just so theycould keep going to the University Beyond Bars, which is only offered at the medium security part of the Monroe Correctional Complex.

“Sometimes they try to get infractions, just so they can stay,” said Carol Estes, founder and administrator of the program that offers college education at no taxpayer expense to inmates at Monroe and the women’s prison at Purdy.

Thanks to a $600,000 grant from a Seattle organization, inmates might not feel the need to break rules in order to stay in college; the program is slated to grow a great deal in coming years, and Thursday, inmates and volunteer teachers gathered with prison officials to celebrate the grant.

University Beyond Bars

University Beyond Bars was founded in the wake of a law that stripped prisons of higher education programs. It is based on a creative idea; in most colleges, you can earn the credit for having taken a class if you successfully “challenge the course,” which means pass the class’ final test.

Why could inmates not get the text books and class notes, study independently, then challenge the courses?

Ohio University agreed to cooperate. Volunteers teachers were found to teach the Ohio courses for free and the classes were offered as volunteers and space could be found.

“The program is five years old,” said Estes, passing through a metal detector on her way into the prison for the Freedom Through Education presentation at the prison Thursday. “We started with two classes. Now there are 20.”

The idea all along has been to create a college campus within the prison; not an easy goal. But with the 2008 arrival of superintendent Scott Frakes, the program got a big break. “Scott tripled the classroom hours,” said Estes.

Estes was afraid she wouldn’t find enough inmates interested in education or enough volunteer teachers to teach the classes. She needn’t have worried.

Among the teachers who stepped forward are the head of the undergraduate writing department of the University of Washington, a professor emeritus of Shakespeare, a law professor at Seattle University and many other very distinguished educators.

And at the start of the fall semester, 160 inmates had enrolled and more are on a waiting list.

UBB has always been able to offer college education very affordably. It costs about $360 per inmate per course; and Ohio University doesn’t charge their portion of that cost until a student has completed the course and passed the test.

Sometimes inmates don’t complete courses because of transfers or infractions. But so far, no student has failed a final.

Until this year, Estes has raised the money with her small group of volunteers. But thanks to a $600,000 grant provided by the River Styx Foundation, a Seattle philanthropy that funds cutting edge social justice programs, Estes needn’t worry about money for quite some time.

Freedom Through Education

“Freedom Through Education” is a slogan for UBB, and for many of the men enrolled, it is the only freedom they will ever know again in their lives. “We have a lot of Life Without the Possibility of Parole people,” said Estes. “It’s about the next 50 years, to have something to do.”

Atif Rafay, a startlingly eloquent young man given life without parole at age 18 for his role in the murder of his mother, father and sister, a crime some believe he didn’t do, said that education has a merit all its own, regardless of what opportunities it creates. “The knowledge of a liberal education is a worthy pursuit in its own right,” he said. Another “lifer” said that education provides hope in the face of despair.

“Getting a sentence of Life without Parole when you are young is hopelessness,” said Arthur Longworth, 44, sentenced to life without parole at age 18 for killing someone during a holdup. “Continuing on after that, learning to survive in prison and proceed forward as decades stack one atop another, and you have long since forgotten what is on the other side of these walls, is perseverance of human spirit.”

Longworth has won several writing awards.

For those who will get out someday, the university offers a way to maybe survive in a world where jobs for felons are few.

“When I get out, I’m more likely to get work,” said Jamar Glenn, 30, incarcerated at 16, who has five years left before his release. He is taking sociology and psychology as well as business management this quarter. “I’m drowning in homework, but it keeps me busy. It allows me to think outside the walls.”

One man said he just wants to be a better father.

“My main thing is, I got children, five years old, and four, and three,” said Toissant Summerrise, who is halfway through a short sentence. “I don’t want them to ask me questions I can’t answer.”

Prisoner activist, inmate, poet, author and Black Prisoners Caucus leader Anthony Wright, who wrote a “HipHopera” that rocked the capacity audience with laughter and won a standing ovation Thursday, said that taxpayers should be pleased with UBB.

“Taxpayers can be assured that here at MCC, the $30,000 a year it costs to incarcerate us is not wasted on human warehousing,” he said. “When we get out, we will be stigmatized, vilified and scrutinized. What better way to upward mobility than owning your own business? And of 96 graduates in one east coast prison, none have come back. When you learn, you don’t return.”

So far, only two UBB alumni have left prison; those two are doing well.

“One is now a paralegal with a downtown law firm,” said Estes. “You should see him. He looks more like a lawyer than a lawyer.”

Nationwide education appears to be a powerful force against repeat offenses. Seven out of 10 inmates will return to prison but for inmates who earn an associate degree or higher while incarcerated, that rate drops to 10 percent.

Positive change

Some of the educators taking part in the program make very good incomes at their regular jobs, but say the job they do for free is the most meaningful.

“It has absolutely changed the way I teach,” said Gilda Sheppard, a professor of Sociology at Evergreen State College, who made a documentary about UBB and who teaches sociology.

For Ed Tellman, it is a satisfying way to volunteer. He works at Amazon, but teaches math to inmates for free.

“The students are really interested and work hard,” he said. “Everyone is really into it. It’s a nice change from my day.”

The program, unique in Washington prisons, has also improved the prison as a whole, said Superintendent Scott Frakes, who heard heartfelt testimonials of thanks to him from several student inmates.

He said that the grant was good news, and looks forward to the expansion of the University Beyond Bars.

“I am so excited about this next year,” he said, to a standing ovation.